Saturday, May 09, 2015

Ah, library sales! I have missed them, but I had quite forgotten that strange mix of feelings when I see a library book that has been discontinued:

Why, there's ___________! Oh, I've been looking for it for such a long time! Why are they throwing it out of their collection? How DARE they? But wait. That means that I can take ____________ home not just for two weeks, but forever!

Here are some of my recent finds:

1. The Life of Irene Nemirovsky - Olivier Philipponnat and Patrick Lienhardt. Nemirovsky was the author of Suite Francaise, who died at the hands of the Nazis. Her daughters smuggled that manuscript and others out of occupied France. One dollar.

2. Drama - John Lithgow. Lithgow got my attention more than 30 years ago when he played Roberta Muldoon in The World According to Garp. I also loved him in Terms of Endearment as Debra Winger's shy Iowan lover. I'm really looking forward to his memoir. One dollar.

3. The Reader's Encyclopedia c. 1970. - Stephen Benet. I love The Reader's Encyclopedia, Especially the older editions. Not only do they define all things literary, there are capsule descriptions of novels and novelists who were popular at the time but have now fallen into obscurity. These delectable tidbits swell my wish lists. One dollar is not too much to pay for a book that contains so much treasure and is also sturdy enough to serve as a doorstop or prop open a window in an emergency.

4. The Late George Apley - John Marquand. BIG SCORE, as this is the Pulitzer fiction (then called Pulitzer novel) winner from 1938. Even better, it's a hardcover copy! One dollar!!!